You create the best album
 

Hello
This is my first ever post on this board. I've enjoyed reading many of the old threads but haven't seen everything yet. So, sorry if this has been done before but:

If you had to create a Fleetwood mac album for someone who knew nothing about the band, which 3 tracks would you choose to best represent Lindsey, Christine and Stevie.
You can choose one bonus track that you love as the 10th song.

My choices are quite mainstream. you can make yours as adventurous as you like.

La Nicks
1. DREAMS (yes, it's over played and i get tired of it sometimes but it's the song that introduced me to FM and I love it. Haunting, ethereal, it's the essence of Stevie)

2. RHIANNON (this IS Stevie)

3. GYPSY (Stevie's heart and Liddy's guitar - brilliant combination)

The Buckmeister

1. GO YOUR OWN WAY ( Lindsey's rock classic for the ages)

2. TUSK (title track from his masterpiece album)

3. BIG LOVE (guitar god)

The songbird

1. YOU MAKE LOVING FUN (Perfect track, the essence of Christine)

2. DON'T STOP (classic. Again, yes it's overplayed but because it's great)

3. MYSTIFIED (I know it's co written with Lindsey but i love her vocal on this -golden throat)

Bonus - this was tough. Could change but for now I'm in a 'Bleed to love her ' mood.

If I had to create a Fleetwood mac album for someone who knew nothing about the band...

I sure as hell wouldn't limit it to just songs by Lindsey, Stevie, and Christine. If I did that, the person would still pretty much know nothing about the band.

If I were to give somebody who has never heard Fleetwood Mac an album that is an overview sample of what Fleetwood Mac sounds like, I certainly wouldn't limit it to just the Rumours crew.

My Fleetwood Mac sampler:

Black Magic Woman
Shake Your Moneymaker
Albatross
Oh Well
Station Man
Buddy's Song
Woman Of A 1000 Years
Hypnotized
Why
Rhiannon
Say You Love Me
Dreams
Go Your Own Way
You Make Loving Fun
Tusk
Isn't It Midnight
In The Back Of My Mind
Winds Of Change
Say You Will
Peacekeeper


EDIT: DANG, Vicky...it's another synchronous moment.

LMAO...

Great minds think alike.

I'll have to give it some thought and come up with my own list.

For the first time ever, I agree with you :laugh: Thats a great overview of the history of FM - maybe you should include something from The Dance though :shrug:

Good suggestion. Probably "Silver Springs"...and I also forgot "The Chain".

Hi! Welcome to the board! :wavey:

It's a tough thing to do. I think I'd more or less agree with you [apart from Mystified, I might replace it with Isn't it Midnight] -- not because those are necessarily my favourite songs, but because they do sort of epitimise what each singer is about.

Interesting!

:D I think you should include something from mirage too - "Gypsy" :shrug: & maybe another song for both TITN & Tusk (both being important albums)

i think i'd put three songs that best represent them as a band -
not necessarily one by each writer -
so probably

World Turning
The Chain
Dreams




3 songs is hard to capture this band.
I think 10 songs would be a better representation -
then you can include Black Magic Woman, Albatross and songs from Say You Will.

Please no Say You Will... I hate that song... add Songbird and Illume..

return to me for approval! :laugh:

I like Chili's sampler as well. But I also would add like, Silver Springs and Gypsy. :nod:

^Not somthing you order from the Chili's restaurant. What chiliD posted. :nod: :laugh:

OK, from just the Rumours crew I'd have to have:

Lindsey's songs (to be honest I could put in so many more for Lindsey, his music really connects with me):

I'm So Afraid (not sure if it would be live or studio, but this is the song I think of when I think of Lindsey)
Big Love (Live - it doesn't fail to impress everyone I've ever let hear it.)
Go Your Own Way (Couldn't not put it in after all :cool: )

Christine's songs:

You Make Loving Fun (I just had to put it in)
Isn't It Midnight (Some really good stuff going on in this song)
Don't Stop (Just because... well... it's Don't Stop! Everyone likes it, atleast until they've heard it a million times :rolleyes: )

Stevie's songs:

Rhiannon (essential Stevie Nicks)
Silver Springs (Live - loadsa passion in this song, just great)
Dreams (:thumbsup: )

For the bonus song I would probably put in The Chain since it was a whole band effort and an excellent song, but I'm very tempted to chose another Buckingham song since there are so many more I would want to put in lol.

Lindsey: Tusk, Bwana, A Satisfied Mind
Chris: YMLF, Did You Ever Love Me, Heroes Are Hard to Find
Stevie: Crystal, GDW, Everybody Finds Out
Dave: The Derelict
Bob Welch: Keep On Going, Angel, Safe Harbour
Peter: Another Woman, Before the Beginning, Man of the World

Welcome! Heres the list I put together:


1.Oh Well
2.Albatross
3.Green Manalishi
4.Why
5. Hypnotized
6. Landslide
7.Over My Head
8.The Chain
9. Gold Dust Woman
10.Dreams
11.Sara
12.Think About Me
13.Gypsy
14.Everywhere
15. Isnt It Midnight
16.Save Me
17.Big Love(The Dance)
18.Steal Your Heart Away
19.Illume
20.Throwndown.

Screw you guys, I'm making mine a two album set. There's simply no fully satisfying way to narrow it down any further (and even this still isn't as good as I'd like):

Black Magic Woman
Shake Your Moneymaker
Love That Burns
Dust My Broom
Oh Well
Man Of The World
Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight
Station Man
Woman Of 1000 Years
Future Games
Sentimental Lady
Dust
Spare Me A Little Of Your Love
The Derelict (for you, David)
Hypnotized
Come A Little Bit Closer
Miles Away
Why
---
Over My Head
Rhiannon
Dreams
Go Your Own Way
You Make Loving Fun
Sara
Tusk
I Know I'm Not Wrong
Gypsy
Hold Me
Tango In The Night
Isn't It Midnight
In The Back Of My Mind
Talkin' To My Heart
Big Love (The Dance)
Silver Springs (The Dance)
Everybody Finds Out
Say Goodbye

Yeah youre probably right about the 2 cd thing.:laugh:

Ok, ok...I slaved & sweated over cutting it to one disc...but, now that the lid is off the kettle, I'd actually just make it a 10 disc box set.

Cool thread. The Rumours line-up is my favorite too, so I'd also choose songs from these particular songwriters :thumbsup:.

Stevie: Rhiannon, Gold Dust Woman, Storms

Lindsey: Go Your Own Way, Tusk, Big Love (acoustic)

Christine: Think About Me, Songbird, You Make Loving Fun

Always the malcontent :rolleyes: :laugh: :xoxo:

I think giving them the chain boxset - plus a CD of tracks from Time, Dance & SYW would be a good overview :shrug:

Well, I'll give you points for originality. I think you're the first person in the history of the universe to think that the Chain box set makes for a good overview of anything.

Makes a good gift for anyone in need of coasters, anyway.

:laugh: I think that it is a great overview, probably too much 80's material - but still a great overview of the band.

Can I ask why people don't like it?

Well, for starters, the sequencing is beyond bizarre and awful; nobody can salvage any understanding of the band's history from this set.

Second, out of a total of 72 songs, a whopping 21 are devoted to the first seven years of the band's history, a period during which the band released nearly twice as many albums as they did in the period from 1975 through 1992, which is represented with 51 songs. And 10 of those 21 pre-1975 selections are Peter Green songs.

Bob Welch, who was a member and frontman of the band for over three years and five albums, is represented here with a total of three songs. Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan fare even worse, with two apiece. Meanwhile, Christine has 20, Lindsey 17, Stevie 15.

The albums Fleetwood Mac (1968), Kiln House, Future Games and Bare Trees are represented by one track each. Meanwhile, Rumours gets nine out eleven.

How can you really consider this to be a good overview of the band's history and music? It's so ridiculously skewed, it would be laughable if it weren't so honestly disappointing.

I agree that limiting to those 3 songwriters does not explain entirely about Fleetwood Mac. But.. I will follow the game:

La Nicks
Gypsy
Landslide
Sara
sorry I left out Silver Springs, but it's not tthe landmark type song.


The Buckmeister
GO YOUR OWN WAY ( Lindsey's rock classic for the ages, I agree
TUSK
So Afraid or Tango in the night

Christine
YOU MAKE LOVING FUN
Everywhere
Songbird

TWO Bonus: THE CHAIN!!!!! and Farmers daughter

Great choices everyone.

I actually want to change one of my own!
For Christine I think i'd rather have Say You Love me instead of 'You make loving fun'

(I only chose the Rumours crew because that is this section of the board but ofcourse you can widen it)

And thanks David Mn and sahara for welcoming me to the board. Nice to be here. It's a great board.

I don't like albums or collections that just give me what I already own. So I would have liked it better if it had been a bunch of things that I wasn't able to buy elsewhere.

That goes for the photos, too.

Well, I made up 2 cd's of my favorite songs awhile back, and I'm very happy with them. Here they are:


CD#1

1. Albatross
2. Oh Well(from the live at the bbc cd)
3. Hypnotized
4. Landslide
5. The Chain
6. Gold Dust Woman
7. Dreams
8. Never Going Back Again
9. Songbird
10. Sara
11. Walk A Thin Line
12. Over And Over
13. I Know I'm Not Wrong
14. Think About Me
15. Angel(Stevie)
16. Gypsy
17. Everywhere
18. Steal Your Heart Away
19. Illume
20. Love Minus Zero/No Limit

CD#2

1. Fleetwood Mac
2. Green Manalishi
3. Man Of The World
4. Woman Of 1000 Years
5. The Way I Feel
6. Why
7. Coming Home
8. Safe Harbour
9. Warm Ways
10. Say You Love Me
11. Over My Head
12. Oh Daddy
13. I Don't Want To Know
14. Save Me A Place
15. Never Make Me Cry
16. Beautiful Child
17. Brown Eyes
18. Big Love(The Dance)
19. Isn't It Midnight
20. Throwndown
21. Peacekeeper

It isn't really. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you might also be working under the assumption that most Fleetwood Mac fans would WANT a large quantity of pre-Rumours line-up material on a F.M. boxed set, which I don't think is the case. And I'm assuming that it's mostly fans that would buy a F.M. boxed set. If we're talking casual fans buying the boxed set, (if in fact they WOULD buy it) I'm sure they couldn't care less about pre-Buckingham/Nicks F.M. So with that in mind, and assuming my first statement is correct, the amount of pre-Rumours line-up material on the boxed set is plenty; it's a good enough overview, if not perfect. I mean, they can't release an 8 disc boxed set now can they? :laugh: It would be nice, but forget about it.

Anyway, and I know this isn't going to sit well with some of you (Chilli, Jyqm, etc), but I NEVER listen to the pre-Rumours lineup disc in The Chain boxed set. In fact, I think I've only listened to it once, and that's when I first bought it. I'm only mildly interested in pre-Rumours line-ups, so the boxed set, as it is, suits me just fine where that's concerned. I do agree that the running order is **** and I also think that they should have included a few more live versions of songs, and maybe BETTER live versions...I'm not too crazy about the version of Stand Back that's on there, seems like they could have chosen a better performance. But all in all, the boxed set isn't that bad. I enjoy it.

But we weren't talking about what most people might want, we were talking about whether or not the box set is a good overview of the band's history. It's not. It's not even a good overview of the 1975-1992 period. It's just a terrible set.

Casual fans tend not to buy box sets, period. The only people who really buy box sets are people who know almost nothing about an artist and want a good introduction, or (usually much more likely) die-hard fans. Of course, there are two very different types of box sets to be marketed to each of those groups. The former are going to want something that gives them a good overview of the artist's catalogue and most important music (for example: Johnny Cash, The Legend); the latter are going to want something that gives them music that they don't already have (for example: Johnny Cash, Unearthed). The Chain tries lazily to have it both ways on this front - juxtaposing hits with a handful of unreleased tracks and barely-different alternate versions of released songs - and fails miserably.

That aside, the claim that people don't want pre-1975 Mac simply isn't true, at least insofar as it pertains to the Peter Green era of the band. The fact that record companies keep releasing and re-releasing so much material from this period proves that there is a very solid market out there for it.

Of course, the conflict of interest tends to come in combining the different eras of the band, because obviously there are people who are fans of some incarnations and not others. My response to that would be, if Fleetwood Mac really wanted to offer a good career-spanning retrospective, then release four individual discs (something like 1967-1970, 1970-1974, 1975-1982, 1987-present) at normal prices, along with a box set of all four at a discounted price. That way you could pick and choose if you wanted, or get the whole package. But that's all moot anyway, since I don't see anything like this ever happening, especially since The Very Best was released so recently and is a pretty decent overview of the 1975-1987 (+ 1997) period. (Really, I think the only thing keeping that set from being very good is the "What was the point?" inclusion of the last four songs: "As Long As you Follow," "No Questions Asked," "Skies The Limit" and "Paper Doll." They simply don't fit with the rest of what's on there, and they seem ingloriously tacked on to the end merely to fill space. Including stuff like "Fireflies" or "Eyes Of The World" or "I Know I'm Not Wrong" or "Isn't It Midnight" would have made a lot more aesthetic sense.)

That sits fine with me. If you don't like Peter Green, you don't like Peter Green. I certainly would never demand that everybody like all the same music around here. I don't like everything Fleetwood Mac has ever done; I think Mr Wonderful, Penguin and Time are incredibly uneven albums, and I think Behind the Mask is downright terrible. The only thing I object to is when people pass off other incarnations of the bands as though they were unimportant or somehow lesser versions of Fleetwood Mac. (Or when they imply that "casual fans" have zero interest in other incarnations of the band. There are plenty of people who are "casual fans" of the Green years, and even the Welch years, although to a lesser extent.)

However, I would say that The Chain gives you such a terrible, paltry sampling of the post-Green, pre-Buckingham/Nicks years, that you really can't have a very informed opinion of whether you like much of that music or not, if that's all you've heard of it. And it's worth checking out if you have a chance.

I can listen to VBOFM all the way through to Hold Me. After that, I skip everything except World Turning and Sisters of the Moon. Christine's songs after that are dull AC, Seven Wonders annoys me, No Questions Asked is annoying, bratty, and muddy (I swear, I've almost fallen asleep listening to it), Family Man is well, Family Man, and Paper Doll is catchy but instantly disposable. It's like they just pulled songs out of a hat. The first time I listened to Tusk I was like, "woah, why didn't they put more of these songs on that "best of" set?

I will forever defend the honor of "Family Man," which, setting aside the contents of the lyrics, contains some absolutely beautiful guitar work, plus the vocal effects are an important step in the great Lindsey-plays-with-voice-manipulation saga.

If "Family Man" and "When I See You Again" are the bastard children of Tango In The Night, I will gladly be their loving foster parent.

But yes, a couple more Tusk songs would certainly be in order on this set. Where's "Brown Eyes"? Where's "The Ledge"?

On this point, we couldn't possibly agree more. And THAT's the main reason people think I'm a Chiffon hater. Because that seems to be the prevalent attitude among ALOT of them. I personally think the Bob Welch years to be the best of FM. The transition the band makes through those five albums is amazing. I PRAY that someday these five will see remastering.
If it weren't for Bob Welch, Old What's Her Name would still be cleaning houses.

Yeah, I know. I guess my comment was more of an aside than anything. I think some fans get really hung up on pre-Rumours lineup F.M. and don't really like to face the fact that there are many more fans out there that don't listen to all those other incarnations. I think The Chain boxed set reflects that, I mean, how successful would a F.M. boxed set be that focused 50/50 on Pre and Post Rumours era lineups? I know I would be skipping many discs and it would be a waste of money for me. I think the simple fact of the matter is that most people want mainly Rumours era lineup, so one disc of pre is probably enough for the general listener.



It may not be the preferred smattering of F.M.'s catalogue, but I don't think it "fails miserably." That's a bit overly dramatic.


I didn't say that NOONE wanted pre-1975 era F.M., I made the assumption (and it is only an assumption based on their popularity) that there are more F.M. fans (barring Chilli of course) who are mostly Rumours line-up fans than anything else. See all my qualifiers? I qualify like crazy! :]


Oh but I DO like Peter Green! It's all those others, that revolving door of guitarists sans Green that are milquetoast to me. I never said I don't like Peter Green, make no mistake about that.

I don't think there are any pre-1975 Mac fans who don't realize and accept that the 1975-1987 line-up of the band was monstrously successful and that that is the incarnation of the band with which most people are familiar and the majority of people like. If we harp about those earlier incarnations, it's only because non-fans often strongly imply that there are so fewer fans of the ealrier eras as to render them almost meaningless and barely worth most people's time or attention. This simply isn't true.

As for how a 50/50 box set would fare, who knows. You would skip half the songs on it, and plenty of Green-era enthusiasts would skip the other half. Hence my suggestion of selling discs both individually and as a set, if they ever wanted to do it again.

You sure? It sure seems like a pretty awful set to me. It's really the sequencing that makes it so terrible in my eyes. Sequencing on a one- or two-disc hits compilation isn't necessarily that important, but when you get into the realm of three- or four- or more-disc box sets, it's almost everything. When you're offering that much music, you need to give some sense of coherence or narrative, either chronologically or aesthetically. The Chain does neither and ends up being a big messy mish-mash. I could put my iPod on shuffle and come up with something better.

Putting aside the idea of Jeremy Spencer or Bob Weston as a "milquetoast" guitarists (that'd make a great new thread, though): over half of the songs on disc 4 of The Chain are Peter Green numbers, and you said you've listened to it twice in however long you've owned it. How much can you really like him?

Why does this come down to Stevie? I'm talking about the WHOLE Rumours era line-up including: John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, and Stevie Nicks. I'm not really happy about F.M. going on without Chris, I feel like the Rumours line-up is missing a crucial member, so it's not just Stevie that makes this particular lineup what it is to me. I prefer these five together over any other incarnation of Fleetwood Mac. Even though Stevie is my favorite, it's not just Stevie alone that makes this line-up the best in MY eyes.

I do like him, I don't LOOOOOVE him, see the difference? My c.d. collection takes up an entire room of my house, point being I have other things I enjoy listening to more. I guess that's as simple as I can put it :shrug:

I think Homer's point was that it's generally the folks who identify themselves as "Stevie fans" who denigrate other eras of the band the most. Likely because there's more of them. It doesn't seem to come up as often in the attitudes of folks who identify themselves as "Lindsey fans." Possibly because there's fewer of them. And obviously it has no bearing at all on people who identify themselves as "Christine fans." She produced some of her very best stuff on those pre-1975 albums.

I mean, I don't want to argue silly semantics with you or anything, but there plenty of artists that I like but am not absolutely gaga over and I've listened to their music far more than twice. If I've got an album that I've only ever listened to twice, it probably didn't do very much for me. But again, this is just semantics, it's not about who's a bigger fan or who gets to call themselves a fan or whatever silly crap like that. I'm glad you appreciate him, and I hope you delve into more of his stuff sometimes if you have a chance, as it's really a wealth of riches.

And from what I've heard of it, I'd agree. I like Chris, I think she's a great vocalist, songwriter, and pianist/keyboard player. I just don't "connect" to much of the pre-1975 stuff, it isn't magic for me like the post '75 stuff.

So I'm ADD, so sue me? :shrug: I can't explain why I've only listened to something twice, that takes a deeper psychological analysis of myself than I'm willing to undergo at this point. Let's just say that Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac is cool and worth listening to, and let there be an end to it! :laugh: